Re: GitP PrC Contest XXXV: The Last Harvest!

The Horror

Don't Fear the Reaper.

The horror is a fear monger, a warrior that thrives on the fear of others and makes their fear his strength. They learn to wield fear like the scythes they favor and infuse it into their being until they become the ultimate nightmare.

BECOMING A HORROR
Fighters are the most common Horrors, esspecially those using the Thug variant. Barbarians sometimes enter this class, as do fallen paladins or paladins of freedom. Very rarely, a multiclassed fighter/dread necromancer will enter this class.

Weapon Proficiencies: A horror gains no new weapon or armor proficiencies.

Presence: A horror's very existance is fear, and as they grow, so does the fear they wield. This is measured by their Presence, a pool of points used to fuel a number of the horror's class features. As long as the horror has one point of presence, he gains a bonus on Intimidate checks equal to his horror level and an increase to the DC of his Daunting Presence by half his class level.

Feed the Fear (Ex): A horror is a master of fear, and they know how to feed it and make it grow, strengthening their very aura with a sense of foreboding and fear. By spending presence, the horror can empower his Daunting Presence. By spending a number of points the horror can affect a number of additional targets with his Daunting Presence equal to the number of points spent. By spending two points when using Daunting Presence, the horror can make any shaken target frightened. By spending four points when using Daunting Presence, the horror can make any frightened target panicked. by spending eight points when using Daunting Presence, the horror can make any target frightened instead of shaken. By spending twelve points when using Daunting Presence, the horror can make any target panicked instead of shaken. By spending three points when using Daunting Presence, the horror can extend the range of his Daunting presence by 30ft. By spending ten presence when using Daunting Presence, the horror can cause any cowering opponent to fall unconscious for twenty four hours.

Additionally, the horror gains the benefits of Never Outnumbered with any Intimidate check he makes to demoralize an opponent and the horror can cause fear in creatures normally immune to fear effects, including mindless creatures like oozes and vermin.

Deathscythe (Su): The horror can infuse any scythe, kama, or kusari gama he wields with the power of the reaper. As long as the horror has one point of presence he can turn any scythe, kama, or kusari gama he wields into a deathscythe, causing it to become a far more intimidating instrument of death. The base damage of the scythe increases as if it were one size larger, its critical threat range increases by one which stacks with effects that increase the critical threat range, and the horror adds his Cha bonus as a bonus on attack and damage rolls.

When the horror makes an attack against a shaken, frightened, panicked, or cowering opponent with his deathscythe he deals additional damage. A shaken opponent takes an additional 2d6 points of damage, a frightened opponent takes an additional 4d6 points of damage, a panicked opponents takes an additional 6d6 points of damage , and a cowering opponent takes an additional 8d6 points of damage. This bonus damage is not multiplied on a critical hit.

Reaper's Shroud (Su): Starting at 2nd level, the horror can wear fear like a cloak, as if it were the shroud worn by the grim reaper. As long as the horror has one point of presence he can form the Reaper's Shroud as a standard action. This causes any clothing he wears (including armor) to darken to blacks and greys and gain a more intimidating appearance or forms a cloak of fear made manifest. While the Reaper's Shroud is manifested the horror gains a deflection bonus to his armor class equal to his Cha bonus and any armor bonus the horror now applies against touch attacks.

Swift Demoralization (Ex): Even when they aren't accessing their presence, a horror is still a terrifying individual. From 2nd level onward, the horror can demoralize an opponent as a Swift action.

Bonus Feats: At 3rd, 6th, and 9th level the horror gains a bonus fighter feat. The horror counts his levels in horror as fighter levels when meeting the prerequisites for feats involving the scythe, kama, or kusari gama.

Dread Form (Su): Starting at 4th level, the Horror can infuse his form with the essence of dread itself, turning him into a skeletal crusader of fear. As a free action, the horror can spend a point of presence to enter their dread form for a number of rounds equal to 1 + his modified Cha Bonus. While the horror's Dread Form is active, he gains a +4 bonus to his Cha score and adds his Cha bonus as an untyped bonus to his saving throws. Additionally, the bonus to Intimidate checks from having points of presence is doubled.

Extended Demoralization (Ex): A horror is a truly terrifying individual and the fear he inflicts lingers. Starting at 5th level, when the horror demoralizes a target, the shaken condition lasts for his class level + his Cha bonus rounds. Changes to the horror's Cha score does not change the duration of the shaken condition for previous uses.

Dread Servant (Su): A horror of at least 7th level can create unliving creatures known as dread servants. The horror may spend an hour turning a mostly intact corpse into a dread servant. A dread servant is identical to the base creature except it is either undead (if the horror that created it was neutral or evil) or deathless (if the horror that created it was good).

The dread servant gains the benefits from having unholy toughness and unholy grace (using the horror's Cha in place of its own), and has an Int score equal to that of a familiar of a sorcerer twice the horrors level or its natural Int score, whichever is higher.

The dread servant has a number of hit die and/or class levels equal to that of the horror - 1 and is treated in all other ways as a cohort. The horror may only have one dread servant at any time.

Enhanced Intimidation (Ex): The horror is a master of manipulating and inducing fear. The horror may spend five points of presence to make any one Intimidate he makes treated as a natural 20.

Ultimate Nightmare (Ex): At 10th level the horror becomes a creature of pure fear. The horror's type changes to that of his dread servant (undead if neutral or evil and deathless if good) and he gains both Unholy Toughness and Unholy Grace.

As long as the horror has a certain amount of presence remaining he gains certain benefits. For every five points of presence the horror has, he gains one point of fast healing, up to a maximum of fast healing five, and two points of damage reduction overcome by adamantine, up to a maximum of damage reduction 10/Adamantine.

Additionally, the horror increases his Str, Dex, and Cha scores by 2 each.

PLAYING A HORROR
The horror is narrowly focused on inducing fear on an extreme level, using fear and steel to slay his enemies. They shake their enemies to the bone, chill them with despair, and burn them with fear, that is their way.Combat: The horror will always attempt to strike fear into his enemies, turning their fear into his strength and weakening them. Even creatures that normally do not know fear will tremble before the horror, and this makes his strikes stronger, his power more potent, and his enemies all but helpless. The horror fights dirty, turning his enemies against themselves in order to weaken them and strengthen themselves.Advancement: A horror is always looking to improve his martial prowess, esspecially with his deathscythe. Any class that aids in making his deathscythe a more potent weapon is a good option once the horror finishes their class.Resources: Much like fighters, a horror can draw a lot from military funding, however, they can also draw on the resources of the Death Dealers should they be a part of the organization.

HORRORS IN THE WORLDI've never been so terrified of an adventurer in my life, and I've seen those thrice damned demon tamers!

A horror is a being of fear and despair, whether good or evil, they have a poor reputation. Many hide their abilities, but few manage to live stable lives once they walk this path, they are as much haunted by their own abilities as their enemies are.Daily Life: The life of a horror is lonely, few will believe a horror is anything more than a monster, and they have little right to argue. Horrors traditionally travel from place to place, and use their talents when necessary.Notables: The first horror, a blackguard simply known as Craven, dedicated his life after his fall to fear, striking as much fear into the hearts of his previous order and everyone he met as he could, killing many through fear alone, until it consumed him, turning him into a true nightmare, a creature made of fear and despair, fueled by the simple desire to spread its fear farther and farther.
On the other side, however, is the horror known as Black Remaint, a vigilante that travelled the world and used his image and reputation to strike those that went against the people with fear, a silent shadow that made any city he visited a place free of criminals as he burned their souls with their own fear. His name and face were never seen, only the frozen skull that was his death form was ever seen. Organizations: The horrors have few formal organizations, only one being prevalent. The Death Dealers. The Death Dealers are generally good or neutral horrors that seek to aid the reaper in his work, putting down those that must die and keeping alive those whose time has yet to come. They are often seen as monsters, despite their constant striving to help, but that's what they have become, they are truly monsters, abominations, horrors...

NPC Reaction
A traditional commoner would not recognize a horror until they manifested their Reaper's Shroud, Deathscythe, or Dread Form, but, once they realize the horror's nature, they are quick to run away screaming for their lives.

Last edited by EdroGrimshell; 2012-10-01 at 01:04 AM.

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Originally Posted by GFawkes

You didn't poke fate with a stick. You set fate on fire, then whacked it with a 2x4 several times.

Originally Posted by blackwind1kaze

good thing they did body attribute instead of Physical attribute, otherwise the stats would look like: